Faculty

Paul Duberstein, PhD, PI, Principal Investigator and PRIDE Director. Dr. Duberstein has mentored several postdoctoral fellows and has served as mentor and/or consultant on numerous successful k-award applications.
Dr. Duberstein directs the Laboratory of Personality and Development and is Co-Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, as well Director of the Human Aging Research Core of the Rochester Center for Mind Body Research (RCMBR); (J. Moynihan, PhD, PI). The RCMBR and Rochester PRIDE have one important theme in common: the need for more research on the bidirectional relationships between mental and physical health among people of color. Although studies conducted in tightly controlled laboratory settings or specialty clinics employing strict inclusion and exclusion criteria have established the scientific feasibility of the basic assumptions underlying psychoneuroimmunology, questions about population generalizability and ecological validity have been raised. In particular, patients at greatest risk for chronic diseases of aging—the socioeconomically disadvantaged -- have been under-represented in human psychoneuroimmunology research, despite strong epidemiologic data implicating poverty in adverse health outcomes. Studies conducted under the RCMBR umbrella will employ multiple recruitment strategies, in part to increase generalizability and the range and stage of disease presentations.

Deborah A. King, PhD, PRIDE Associate Director, PRIDE Associate Director, is a clinical psychologist with expertise in geropsychology, family systems, and neuropsychology, has over ten years experience directing APA-accredited clinical psychology training programs. Dr. King is also actively involved in Psychiatry and medical student education, serving on the Department of Psychiatry’s Psychotherapy Curriculum Committee, supervising residents in evidence-based psychotherapy, and teaching “Approaches to the Mind” to 1st year medical students in a core course known as Introduction to Clinical Medicine. As a member of the teaching and research faculty of the Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics, she is involved in the implementation of a series of psychoeducational workshops for cancer survivors; the development and testing of a brief, observer-rated checklist of family interactions at the end of life; and a descriptive, chart review study of the types of ethical and medical-legal challenges posed by cases referred for both palliative care and ethics consults. 

Ann Marie White, EdD, serves as Director of the Department of Psychiatry’s Office of Mental Health Promotion (OMHP). The mission of the OMHP is to promote community-based strategies for preventing risk factors and enhancing protective factors associated with social and emotional well-being by fostering community-academic partnerships for the conduct of mental health research as well as policy, planning, public information or education activities. It does so directly by initiating new community-partnered activities, and by fostering the development of optimal organizational environments for academic-community-partnered activities.  OMHP has particular interests in advancing the well being of traditionally underserved populations and “transitional” periods in the life course such as urban and rural youth and emerging adulthood. Dr. White has created an on-going faculty seminar series, entitled Community Counts, to explore the intricacies of conducting community-based research when working within an academic medical setting and advance researcher training in community-based participatory research approaches.

Kathryn Castle, PhD, is Chair of the Multicultural Curriculum Committee in the Department of Psychiatry. In this role, she coordinates all aspects of multicultural education for all trainees. Dr. Castle is actively involved in the Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network (ESIN), an interdisciplinary setting for the dissemination of knowledge and information about research and career development resources to early career, non-tenured, social, and behavioral and natural scientists of color interested in social and health disparities research. Her role in ESIN enhances the visibility of our Department among leading scholars of color.